Richard D. Solomon's Blog on Mentoring Jewish Students and Teachers: How the web-based audio tool, Audio Pal, can be used to promote instruction in the blended learning classroom

Friday, May 31, 2013

How the web-based audio tool, Audio Pal, can be used to promote instruction in the blended learning classroom

When mentoring our pre-service and in-service teachers we need to describe and model both research-based and clinically tested best practices, and demonstrate how these best practices can be applied in the real (i.e. physical) and virtual (i.e. online) classroom for both teaching and teacher training. The combination of face to face instruction in a physical setting and online learning is called blended learning. In this section of the blog we will describe how the internet can serve as a supplemental resource for instruction and the mentoring of pre-service and in-service Jewish educators. In this post we will discuss how the web-based audio tool, Audio Pal, can be used to promote instruction in the blended learning classroom.

Assumption: The teacher or mentor teacher has an interactive white board (i.e. SMART Board, Promethean, etc.), a Tablet PC (also called a Slate or Blade), a computer presenter or computer with internet access attached to an LCD projector in the classroom. It would be ideal if students or mentees had access to their own laptop computers or Ipads. Given parental and school approval, and the development of specific guidelines, smartphones can be used to enhance instruction as well.

Note: Although Audio Pal can be applied in the Judaic Studies blended learning classroom, it can be also be used for training pre-service and in-service Jewish educators for professional or staff development. It is our hope that Jewish educators around the globe will form an online community of practice, a CoP, a group of people who share an interest, a craft, and/or a profession, to enhance the delivery of instruction and training of Jewish educators. For example, here is a CoP you might want to join.

Note: Audio Pal can be used in a face to face and virtual classroom.

What is Audio Pal?

Audio Pal is free user-friendly online audio tool that can do the following:

Record your voice by phone or via your computer’s audio system
Convert text to sound
Upload mp3 files

Where is Audio Pal located on the internet?

http://audiopal.com

How the web-based audio tool, Audio Pal, can be used to promote instruction in the blended learning classroom

Click on the links below to find web resources explaining how Audio Pal can be used to promote instruction in the face to face and virtual classrooms.

On the next post we will discuss how the web-based audio tool, Audio Pal, can be used to promote Judaic instruction and to mentor and train Jewish educators.